The first dollar I ever spent when I moved to Dallas bought me two Science Fiction paperbacks at a place I would come to love over the next twelve years.

After almost twenty years of serving the readers of Richardson, The Book Tree is going out of business.

The Book Tree is what Half-Priced Books used to be before it became a Barnes & Noble outlet. Good books, cheap prices, a random assortment of jazz, showtunes, and noir movie soundtracks playing over the speakers.

The building sucked, so after it rained you’d usually see buckets strewn throughout the store. There wasn’t enough space on the shelves to hold all the books, so you’d have to crouch down and read through the piles stacked up on the floor.

I was turned on to great writers like Ben Bova, J.D Robb, Jeff Abbott, L.E. Modesitt Jr, William C. Dietz, and countless others while strolling down the crowded aisles.

Barry & Terry, the twins that own the store, have an impressive database of writers and books that they call from memory. Always smiling, always helpful, with a love of Mystery novels that borders on the obsessive. They survived the monstrosity known as Barnes & Noble when it opened in the Richardson Square Mall across the street. I don’t know WHY they’re closing now, but I’ve heard that they are moving out of state. I guess I’ll find out today when I go rummage through the stacks one last time.

They’re open until the 22nd, so if you want to get some good books on the cheap, head to Richardson.